intention of attacking Starkweather at the forks of the road. I ordered Hall's brigade on the road at once, and sent messengers to order the mounted regiments to follow as early as possible next morning (28th). Hall and headquarters reached Alexandria at 10.15 a. m. on the 28th, and communicated with Wagner and Starkweather. (The former had moved near the forks.)

April 28, a train of 53 empty wagons reached Starkweather's camp, under escort of the Ninth Michigan, Colonel Parkhurst. This train was loaded with bacon and forage, a portion belonging to refugees, the remainder captured from prominent rebels and turned over to the proper staff officers at corps headquarters on the arrival of the train at Murfreesborough on the 30th.

April 29, headquarters and Hall's brigade moved from Alexandria to Stone's River, via Statesville and Cainsville; Wagner and Starkweather encamped near Milton; Wilder, with two regiments of mounted infantry, moved through Lebanon to Baird's Mills, one regiment coming through Murfreesborough with the headquarters.

DESTROYED OR DISABLED.

The railroad leading from McMinnville to Manchester may be said to be destroyed; all the bridges of any note, as well as trestle-work, are burned; also one locomotive and train of three cars, and various other detached cars at stations; depot buildings at McMinnville; 600 blankets; 2 hogsheads of sugar; 3 hogsheads of rice; 200 bales of cotton; 8 barrels of whisky; 30,000 pounds of bacon; 1 cotton factory (large); 2 mills; 1 camp, tents, & c., on Charley's Creek; 1 camp at Liberty, and 1 mill at Liberty; 180 prisoners captured at various places from Morrison to Stone's River, including 5 commissioned officers; one who represents himself as a major on the staff of General J. C. Breckinridge was captured on the 29th by Wilder's scouts near Glades. Lieutenant-Colonel [R. M.] Martin was mortally wounded by a saber in the hand of a member of the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry. Six hundred and thirteen animals were captured, and seventy-six abandoned. Large quantities of forage and wheat were discovered.

The only casualties to our force were 1 man of the Seventeenth Indiana badly and treacherously wounded; he got into camp; and 1 man of the One hundred and twenty-third Illinois died of disease.

The district bounded south by the road from Readyville to McMinnville, east by the road from McMinnville to Smithville, and west and north by a line drawn from Readyville, via Auburn, Liberty, Alexandria, and New Middleton, to Caney Fork, is sterile and unproductive, excepting a small area about New Middleton. The same remark will apply to the district between Woodbury and the railroad connecting McMinnville with Manchester.

There is no forage and but little subsistence of any kind in the country named above. An army cannot subsist in it, and hence the rebels have been driven to occupy the country to the west of Alexandria, and lying between the Cumberland and Stone's Rivers. The last-named district is, with occasional exceptions, very productive, well watered, and under a high state of cultivation. The rebels have drawn immense quantities of supplies from this portion of country. A force at Alexandria or Liberty would command this whole district. The inhabitants may be divided into three classes: First, the wealthy; second, those of medium means or well-to-do; and, third, the poor. The first class are, with a few noble exceptions, decided rebels, their farms having